Surfing Waves

hi all

i've gotten to where i can pop up in about 4-6 ft waves, but the problem is i'll ride straight down the wave and once i get to the bottom, my nose digs in and i go flying off the board.

so to correct that, i've been trying to do the "paddle at an angle" thing but it doesn't seem to be working. the waves still seem to just knock me over. i'm not paddling at like a 45 degree angle to the shore or anythign like that either.

do you guys tilt the board at all? lean? apply pressure to one rail?

do you do any of this before you pop up? as you pop up?

thanks a ton

you only need to angle the board slightly to the left/right. The best way to do it is do it to the opposite way the white water is travelling then as the wave comes lean onto the side you want to go whilst paddling, then you should travel that direction down the wave.

i tried paddling at an angle too. kept getting thrown off the board or found it too awkward.

i find once you're popped and standing. The instant your front foot lands, have all your weight on it while heavily leaning into whichever way you want to turn. This is easier than popping up, riding down the face and then trying to turn imo.

adding weight to the front foot doesn't increase the likelihood of the nose dig in? i'll give that a shot. maybe it's just one of those things that sounds counterintuitive until you do it...

so by putting weight on the front foot, are you leaning your upper body over the front foot, or is more of a pushing your hips forward towards the front foot

thanks

gerk86 wrote:i tried paddling at an angle too. kept getting thrown off the board or found it too awkward.

i find once you're popped and standing. The instant your front foot lands, have all your weight on it while heavily leaning into whichever way you want to turn. This is easier than popping up, riding down the face and then trying to turn imo.

im not that good... but i think its called pearling.. isnt it? o_0 and thats if you are too far up the board.... ... check this link out.. i just googled pearl.. see if thats the problem...


http://novicesurf.blogspot.com/2004/11/ ... rling.html

while i still pearl now and again, what i was describing earlier is less me getting pitched over the top while i'm still lying on the board paddling.

i'm actually riding down the face, only 85% of the time once i get to the bottom, the nose seems to dig in and i get thrown over...like someone pulling the rug out from under me.

there's 15% of the time when i seem to make the turn and angle down the line, i just have no idea how it's happening.

thanks for that link.

TReMoR wrote:im not that good... but i think its called pearling.. isnt it? o_0 and thats if you are too far up the board.... ... check this link out.. i just googled pearl.. see if thats the problem...


http://novicesurf.blogspot.com/2004/11/ ... rling.html

i find that just as i start the bottom turn a little weight on the back foot then somewhere in the middle of the turn transfer to the front foot. the bigger the wave the more time between transferring the weight but never more than a couple of seconds. sometimes its just like hopping from one to the other while trying to stay light on my feet.
not really sure if that makes any sense never really analysed it before just kind of do it. works for me tho.
quite a good link aswell... top marks!!

that isn't exactly pearling... but anyway, before reaching the bottom, start pushing the back of your board so you start bottom turn

i only ever paddle at an angle when i have to paddle away from the peak to avoid it breaking on me and dont have time to straighten out before taking the drop. you dont see guys at pipline paddling in at an angle do you?

i paddle at an angle sometimes, only problem is if you dont know how to cut back inside youll just out run the wave

what would help more is if you lean on the inside rail while popping up and keep your head and shoulders facing in the direction of the wave

watch this interview with kelly slater, he said about being almost nosedive by taking off at an angle.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WnwR89o02tQ

what i do is i paddle straight towards the shore the once ive caught the wave but before/as i pop up i push on the inside rail so that when i get to my feet im already faceing at an angle. its kinda hard too explain, but i turn as part of my take off

surferdude_scarborough wrote:i only ever paddle at an angle when i have to paddle away from the peak to avoid it breaking on me and dont have time to straighten out before taking the drop. you dont see guys at pipline paddling in at an angle do you?

I'll never be able to surf those DOH+...

thanks, i've worked up the courage to talk to some of the better surfers in the lineup and they've told me the same thing.

i actually tried sitting on the inside and watched these guys (and ate a lot of waves in the process), and it looks more like the drop in but then smash on the tail to get it to turn really quick.

thanks again everyone for the advice. it's too bad we can't all be out in the water working this out together.

joem wrote:what i do is i paddle straight towards the shore the once ive caught the wave but before/as i pop up i push on the inside rail so that when i get to my feet im already faceing at an angle. its kinda hard too explain, but i turn as part of my take off

surferdude_scarborough wrote:i only ever paddle at an angle when i have to paddle away from the peak to avoid it breaking on me and dont have time to straighten out before taking the drop. you dont see guys at pipline paddling in at an angle do you?

no but they paddle their arse off and get on the wave early.

Taking off late is where you need the angle as it helps to save you from nose diving (taking off into a barrell)

if you tried something like that at pipe you would get thrown over the falls.

same as teahpoo...catch wave early, shoot down the face, bottom turn back and up into the barrell.

We get a lot of smaller mushy waves here and the only way to get good face is to launch at an angle. If I try to bottom turn, I'm already in whitewater haha.

The way I understand it, the more angle you put, the more drag or less force you are harnessing from the wave. So I start out perpendicular or at a very small angle and as soon as I feel the wave catch, I try to increase that angle as much as I can through the full motion of the last paddle, standing, and going. Hope that makes sense.

Again, this applies to small waves. Also I'm hardly an expert. (That should really be in my signature as like a disclaimer or warning or something haha.)

What you want is more natural turning, like turning a car at a corner



After the starting to turn, swing the board towards the surface of the wave to get close as much as possible, with the rail almost parallel to the wave, but a bit turned towards the beach...

If you are more experienced you can start your turn more sharper.

i feel ya man.i had the same problem at cocoa a few weeks back.but then agaoin we were stuck rding shorebreak so there was nowhere to turn TO! id advive paddling at a hardly noticible angle..then slowly increasing it the closer you get to catching the wave.then leaning pretty hard to the side of which you would like to go

Look the way you want to go, and the rest will follow.

Sebastiansurfer I had exactly what ur describing this past weekend around wabasso. The bottom of the wave was the shore...neadless to say I'm soar plus the waves never really pealed to be able to turn so I was just getting thrown over the top like what this topic is talking about. I didn't know if it was just me or the wave. (Both I guess)